How quickly some people forget...

Many of you will recognize Phyllis Aplebaum, the owner of Arrow Messenger, and the person in the above picture. If you have ever worked for Arrow, you may have even met her, althogh probably not at the Arrow messenger building. Phyllis' office is in the front of the building, and messengers who work at Arrow are only allowed into the rear section of the building. But if you have ever worked for Arrow Messenger, there is a pretty good chance that you ran into her downtown coming in or out of a building, and there is also a good chance that you got into trouble for not wearing your safety vest and/or helmet.
Even if you have never worked for Arrow, you probably know the name. Phyllis Applebaum is famous among bike messengers for being instrumental in the writing of the Illinois Messenger Ordinance. Phyllis was a chair on the Mayors Bicycle Advisory Committee when the ordinance was revised to require that bicycle messengers wear safety vests and helmets. If you have ever gotten a ticket for not wearing a helmet at work, you can thank Phyllis.
So why is her picture on this blog? A couple days ago, an article came out in Crains Chicagobusiness.com about the pending card-check bill. Crains interviewed Phyllis for the article, and she had some interesting things to say:
Phyllis Apelbaum, founder of Arrow Messenger Services Inc., is especially concerned about the card-check measure as she battles to keep her Chicago-based messenger and delivery service afloat in a sour economy. Ms. Apelbaum says Arrow's business has declined 25% since September and, since January, she's been forced cut her staff to 150 employees from 235.

Ms. Apelbaum wonders how the card-check bill would affect small businesses like Arrow that historically have been off-limits to unions.

"If the unions win, I can't pay our employees any more than I'm paying them now," she says. "In the end, I'll be forced to close down. How does anybody win in that situation?"

First of all, Arrow has not historically "been off-limits to unions". I guess Phyllis must have forgotten the winter of 2004-05, when the Chicago Couriers Union organized the bikers of Arrow.

Here is a picture of nearly the entire crew of Arrow bikers on March 19, 2005. All had shut off their radios for two hours in a temporary walkout on this day to show Arrow management that they were serious about their demands : a small commision raise and fair pay for Arrow in-house jobs. Arrow management responded by locking the bikers out for the rest of the day, and calling the Chicago Police to the Arrow base to protect them from their own employees. This action crippled Arrows operations for the day, and proved just how important to the company the bikers were, and how powerful workers can be when they organize themselves into a union. Arrow conceded to the bikers demands soon after, the company managed to stay in business, and Arrow employees still benefit from the direct action taken in 2005.
The second point that is interesting is Phyllis's claim that "I can't pay our employees any more than I'm paying them now, in the end, I'll be forced to close down. How does anybody win in that situation?" She has been spouting the same tired rhetoric for the past six years. The messenger industry was experiencing a decline in the early 2000's. She used this as an excuse to underpay her employees until the fall of 2004, when the CCU began to challenge the claim that she couldn't afford to pay her employees more. She tried to scare the employees with the threat that the company would go under if she was forced to pay them more five years ago. This simply was not true. The bottom line is that none of the bikers in the picture above wanted the company to be destroyed by their actions. They simply wanted to be fairly compensated for the hard work which they were performing for Arrow Messenger. This is still the case. Nobody wants to see Arrow go out of business, only for the workers at Arrow to be able to make a living wage for all of their hard work, the same as the managers and Phyllis Aplebaum have been able to live comfortably off the profit Arrow employees have provided for them over the years.